Whether the recent mild incursion of Red-breasted Nuthatches in the New Jersey region is a blip on the migration screen or a trend for the autumn and winter waits to be seen. This species is nearly absent from the area in the last few years so it is a welcome sight and sound in the second half of 2016.

Red-breasted Nuthatch sightings from Franklin, Hillsborough and Bernards Townships in June, Rockaway Twp. in August, multiples at Chimney Rock Hawk Watch Aug. 28 and a single “hank-er” at Morris Township this morning are all recorded in the eBird database.

To add to the count of species utilizing the invasive Water Chestnut mats (Trapa natans) for feeding (see this post), 8 Bobolinks were seen foraging at the Lincoln Park Gravel Pits Water Chestnut Buffet on Aug. 23 (R. Johnson). A juvenile Little Blue Heron was also spotted at the location the same day.

A White-eyed Vireo was seen and sang incessantly this morning along Patriots Path on Whitehead Rd., Morris Twp. White-eyed Vireos are present here annually in recent spring and summers, but have been scarce the past two years. A brief iPhone recording of its voice from this morning is at Macaulay Library, here.

What you do not want your Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens to look like when you pull it up for a photo shoot. A long story – some other time.

The eBird Hotspot Primer is here and can also be accessed via the Hotspot menu item on the mocosocoBirds.com website.

@mocosocoBirds at Twitter is another communications stream. Instant field reports and links of interest are tweeted throughout the day. The latest tweets appear on the sidebar of this page. One can follow mocosocoBirds at Twitter or link to @mocosocoBirds.

The mocosocoBirds Facebook page is located here and also posts timely information not found on the mocosocoBirds web site.